People often use computing systems to edit various types of electronic documents. These electronic documents are often sent to a printing device to be printed onto paper or another type of print medium. Electronic documents may represent text, photographs, and various graphic designs. People often use various computer applications to create, edit, and manage the various types of electronic documents. To print an electronic document, a user typically selects the print function from a toolbar menu within the computer application used to manage the electronic document. After the user selects the print function, the electronic document is processed by a printer driver. The printer driver provides the interface to the hardware of whatever printing device will print the electronic document.
A computer application managing an electronic document to be printed does not itself provide the user with a way of interacting closely with the printing device. Rather, the user simply selects the print function and the printer driver takes over the printing process. However, modern printing devices provide several features regarding the coloring and placement of images or text onto the print medium. These printing devices typically come with a separate printer utility application which will allow a user to fully utilize various features which may come with the printing device. However, these printer utility applications are separate from the computer applications used to manage and print various types of electronic documents. Thus, the user must open a new application to fully use the printing device features. Furthermore the printer utility application that comes with the printing device may not include editing tools which would be useful for editing a specific type of electronic document that is to be printed.
Using current printing processes, a user will first print an electronic document and then view the printout. If the coloring or placement is not satisfactory, then the user will make changes to the electronic document using the electronic document's associated computer application. The user will then reprint the electronic document and again view the printout. This process may often need to be repeated several times for each different electronic document that the user desires to print. Furthermore, the user may need to use a separate printer utility application, if available, to utilize the full features of the printing device performing the desired print job.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.